I did not know that former Governor Ed Rendell tried to sell the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a group of investors in the United Arab Emirates. That makes him an asshole. I already knew he was an asshole, but, you know, he was far preferable to the alternative or our present lunatic governor.
I think we’ve been looking at things all wrong. The left seems to think that America has this imperialistic impulse. We’d be better off if we did. There’s no patriotism or allegiance to country. There is just greed. Even Democrats are looking to sell anything that isn’t pinned down to foreign investors. And, wait a second! How the fuck is the Pennsylvania Turnpike not pinned down?
If our bankers were imperialistic and patriotic, they’d be figuring out how to make this country rich. That used to be the game. Now it’s everyone for themselves.
Ben Stein’s defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn should tell you all you need to know when it comes to this sort of stuff. They have no allegiance to country, ideology, w/e. They only have allegiance to class. And I don’t have a problem with that, we just have to convince the people who are being conned to rise up against these assholes and ignore the wedges being strewn around the barricades; gays, “illegals”, abortions, blacks, atheists.
So no, we don’t need more nationalism and patriotism, we need less.
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Carrying wealth to the US through investment bankers has not always led to sound deals. Luckily for Dubai, it has a wealthy neighbor Abu Dhabi with large oil revenues. Remember your view on DP World in 2006? How time flies …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."America has had the imperialist impulse from when settlers defied Britian’s 1769 boundary line set in treaties with Native Americans at the end of the French and Indian War. The vision of a country that stretched from “sea to shining sea” is a fundamentally imperialist vision. But then we turned our gaze to the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine is anti-imperialist in tone and imperialist in intent.
As the US opened global markets (in competition with Britain, France, Germany, Holland, and Japan), Coca-Cola followed first and then Mr. “Coca-Cola” Candler’s brother’s Methodist missionaries.
And then we came to the “American Century”, when the US was to be the indispensable country in the world. The defender of self-determination. How did that work out? US corporations acquired “subsidiaries” in other countries.
But in the 1970s, corporations began to shift from being multinational (claiming a single country as headquarters and operating in its interest) to being “global”, that is, transnational (claiming no single country as headquarters other than convenience and attempting to transcend the laws of every particular country it operated in). But at the same time insisting that the US military protect its interests as an “American” company overseas. Instead of classic imperialism in which a sovereign uses businesses to control markets and deploys its own troops to create subsidiary states making business owners compete for government attention, businesses now have governments competing for job relocation. Loyalty shifts from the nation of the headquarters to the corporation itself. Patriotism is passe (an an obstacle to “globalism”).
The final nail in the coffin of traditional imperialism was the corporate assertion in the 1980s that it’s sole responsibility was to its shareholders (although the truth is that it is to the CEO’s bank account). That assertion is the same as saying that it has no responsibility to: its customers, its employees, its suppliers, the communities in which its facilities are located, the country in which it is located, the future of the environmental resources that it uses, future shareholders, and future generations.
America still has an imperialistic impulse, but it is not found in its corporations. It exists in the team-spirit cheap patriotism of chanting U-S-A, the constant assertion against the facts of the last 30 years that the USA is the greatest country in the world (none are in a less unipolar world), the anxiety about offenses to the American civil religion, like burning the flag, the assertion that we still are the model for the way to govern a country (in spite of better models in Europe and the manifest gridlock in the US). But America’s time as an empire has come and gone, thanks to the folly of President George W. Bush. America no longer has the deterrent image as the unbeatable and unattackable “hyperpower” (to use the French view in 1999).
The world is becoming resistant to empire, even Chinese empire. The US put into place many multinational institutions aimed at global stability and imperial control. Those institutions have gained power: international finance organizations, mutual security pacts, the European Union, the United Nations and all its executive, legislative, and increasingly important judicial units. China’s current play is to capitalize on its monetary strength (easy to do when you run an autocratic state and have personal discipline) to deal with the failures of the US-led institutions by creating its own. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is the most successful so far. But likely in the future is some sort of development bank that takes advantage of the failure of the IMF, first in the developing world and now in Europe (is the US next?).
What the governor of Pennsylvania is doing is no more or less than what the IMF (and the EU) is pressuring Greece to do. Guess who might buy those formerly public assets? China.
What should happen to the Pennsylvania Turnpike is to take down the toll booths and let it be a freeway. The public has paid its cost many times over.
I would like to add a sidebar to your excellent comment. Since the 1950’s the American psyche has been taken over by a “Con Man” mentality, or otherwise stated the moral sanctification of the path to wealth through any successful gimmick, including fraud. Over the decades Americans made heroes out people who invented “The Hula-hoop”, “The Pet Rock”, etc. Over the years the rush to become the next millionaire caused the nation to loosen its grip on its moral compass, and soon even the “butcher’s thumb of the scale” became accepted expected business practice.
This opened the door of opportunity for America’s con-men to emerge from the shadows and slide into positions of power such as becoming corporate raiders simply by bamboozling corporation boards of directors. Initially, any fly by night CEO identified as a corporate raider was viewed by the public as a low life scumbag who screwed thousands of employees out of their retirement savings. However, as these corporate raider alumni rapidly moved into Republican politics, they were successful in getting this public viewpoint set aside.
These corporate raider/political lobbyist/con men were quick to locate those Democratic politicians whose votes were for sale, and upon solidifying this side of Congress have been able to drive the legislative branch of the federal government for these many decades.
The current problem is that the latest generation of con men are to be found mainly on the state level of government, and these individuals lack the sophistication of their brothers skillfully operating on the federal level. So following their takeover of a number of state governments, they have made a myriad of dumb ham fisted legislative moves that is likely to stink them out of most state public offices.
Regardless of the 2012 outcome America will still be stuck with a huge DEEP “con man” infestation throughout the federal government. Unfortunately, as part and parcel of the fumigation process America must CLEAN up archaic textual ambiguities and MODERNIZE the U. S. Constitution. This awesome task is not only necessary to rid itself of these destructive bloodsucking “con men” but it is critical if America is to have any chance of surviving the devastating onslaught of the daily twists and turns generated by a new highly technological global world where time and distance have no relevance to political and economic changes.
Apparently your gov is a Mitch Daniels wannabe. I’m surprised Daniels hasn’t had the state parks on the auction block yet, although the instances of state forest logging have stepped up considerably. I suppose once the trees are gone, there’ll be grazing rights to sell off.
“If our bankers were imperialistic and patriotic, they’d be figuring out how to make this country rich. That used to be the game. Now it’s everyone for themselves. “
Yup. It’s been this way for a long time. remember how 401K were going to let “us” have control of our retirement (“every one for themselves”).
How’s our rugged individualism working out?
My mom’s end of life nursing home stay ate a lifetime of savings and investment in an incredibly short period at 5K+ a month. No matter how much you save, a little lousy luck and kiss it goodbye. Guess we could have worked her into the 2nd bedroom that we’re using for a home office, but we only have about 800 sq ft of living space now & we’d have had to pay for an in-home care professional anyway. No way I want those Wall St greedheads getting a finger on even a penny of social security funds, though.
Having spent a good part of my working career on the fire dept., my answer to the rugged individuals: Try putting out your house fire by yourself, or get yourself out of a crushed vehicle when somebody else hits you. If you want to burn it & sell to some insurance company, that’s no excuse, what about the neighbors?
Right you are, Booman.
The political right in this country is a capitalist right, not a nationalist or religious right. They just put on those costumes for political effect.
It didn’t used to be this way. Ronald Reagan was as strong a nationalist as he was a capitalist. Barry Goldwater even moreso. Look at Robert Taft – he might as well have been a 19th-century Tory.